Someone sent me this well known video of a 707 being barrel rolled in the 1950s
I wonder if anyone has stories of other stuff, bizjet and above, being rolled?
There are rumours of Concorde having been rolled too.
In theory all aircraft can be ‘safely’ barrel rolled which shouldn’t take more than 2 to 2 1/2 G and is a positive G manoeuvre. The computer on the Airbus would say No, if a barrel roll were attempted.
An incorrectly executed barrel roll, allowing the nose to drop below the horizon while inverted, would over stress non aerobatic aircraft if recovery was mis handled.
Could the airbus not be rolled in alternate law, or in fully manual?
Airbus knows Normal Law, Alternate Law ALT1 and ALT2, and Direct Law – depending on what systems have failed. There is no bank angle protection in ALT2 and no protection in Direct Law. However I think you cannot fly a barrel roll because IIRC a lot of flight spoilers will be inoperative and you won’t achieve the proper roll rate …
Citation was broken up few years ago in the air on the Czech-German border, killing two and teaching many: do not attempt to roll anything, which is not designed to be rolled. At least not in the air.
Some quick googleing will show images of an ATR rolled by then-Cimber Air managing director back in 2008 in Denmark.
https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/atr-may-have-been-damaged-in-39barrel-roll39-223759/
Flight training crashes trying to do barrel rolls
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19611204-0
the reason for that crash was not “certain” but
three years later they had to investigate deeper
https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19640715-0
A factor to be considered is what I’m going term the “Acceleration Density” (AD) of the aircraft (my made up term). By this, I mean the relationship between the weight, inertia, “slipperiness”, and Vne of an aircraft. For my experience, the greater the AD, the more easily a satisfying roll can be flown, BUT the risk of getting it wrong goes up exponentially.
Consider the lowly C 150/152 Aerobat, by all accounts a compromise as aerobatic aircraft, but it does the job. Yes, it is stronger in G tolerance, but if you’re flying precise aerobatics, this should never be needed – it’s for the screw ups. But the Aerobatic version of the aircraft has a Vne of 193 MPH, rather than the standard 162 MPH. This allows for a speed screw up to be tolerated, or more simply being able to point it down too long or at too high an entry G, and having room (in the airspeed range) to get it out. Flying any aerobatics in a non aerobatic aircraft type means that your maneuvers must be very precise, and error free, as you do not have room to screw up. A well flown roll will not exceed any limitation of a normal category aircraft, but flying a poorly flown one very likely will. It’s the amount of warning of this that the pilot may receive, relative to their ability to perceive that warning which is affected by the AD.
I once did a wingover in my friend’s C 182RG – bad idea! Did that ever speed up quickly going down! I kept it within limits, but just! Yet, while spin testing a C 185 amphibian, there was lots of room to allow it to be pointed down without worrying about Vne, lots of warning. Much lower AD, due to the drag of the floats, for an otherwise similar airplane.
While a passenger with an aerobatic pilot friend in his C 185 amphibian a long time ago, I asked if a floatplane could be rolled, considering the pendulum affect of the floats. He said he had never tried. Yes, it can, twice, and beautifully, in the hands of a very skilled pilot! I can assure you that a 185 wheelplane can be nicely rolled by a less experienced pilot.
The foregoing said, in case it is not blindingly obvious, do not attempt aerobatics unless you have been competently trained by an aerobatic instructor, in an aerobatic certified plane!
Presumably there must be a method whereby a skilled pilot can barrel roll any plane he gets into. Can such a procedure be described?
Is one of the challenges maintaining +1G all the way round without exceeding Vne?
I know a 767 pilot who says they often roll them in the sim, but only ballistically i.e. fly a low-G curve (a climb and then a descent) and rolling it at the top of that, so there is almost no G involved.
Typical low G barrel roll you initially might have 2 G plus on entry, easing to 1 G going through inverted and coming out at around 2 G. The way to achieve a low G barrel roll is a gentle pull up, but not so gentle that you fall out of the top. If the nose is falling through the horizon inverted you need to stop pulling through, and roll from inverted in the opposite sense of your entry roll.
Technically it is not an aerobatic competition manoeuvre and is not in the Aresti dictionary of manoeuvres. It is a display type manoeuvre and also used in fighter type training.
As the name implies you are flying around the inside of a barrel, and it is not an axial rolling manoeuvre such as an aileron or slow roll.
Here is an unfortunate clip of a barrel roll gone wrong – so only attempt in an aircraft certified for aerobatics at a safe altitude.
